


princess of the moon

by green_piggy



Series: eirichel week 2019 [1]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Eirichel Week 2019, F/F, Modern Fantasy, kinda??, sometimes your girlfriend is a dead ghost living on the moon and that! is! valid!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-19 02:26:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19347658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/green_piggy/pseuds/green_piggy
Summary: It was something of a local legend; hold a treasured bracelet up to the full moon on the ruins of Castle Renais, and a princess would appear. L’Arachel, taking procrastination to a new level, decides to find out just how true that legend is.





	princess of the moon

**Author's Note:**

> written for day 1 of eirichel week, for the prompt 'moon'!
> 
> i'm doing eirichel week 2019!!! they're one of my favourite otps and fe (and fandoms in general) Always needs more f/f, so!  
> i'll be busy this entire week, but i have all the prompts done! just a matter of proofreading and uploading~
> 
> the only reason i'm publishing all the fills separately is because this au got Way out of hand and i ended up getting a ton of ideas for it, so expect more on it in the future!
> 
> hope y'all enjoy - and please, if you want to, don't be afraid to make your own content for them! they're both wonderful <3

Rumours whispered of a princess that lived on the moon. If you stood in the ruins of where Renais had once been, and offered a stone-studded bracelet to the full moon when it shone brightest, the princess would grace you with her presence.

Many descriptions existed of her, all wildly contradicting one another, as no one could ever prove that they had seen her in the flesh.

Or, well, spirit.

L'Arachel, of course, drew towards daring adventures like a moth to a darkened room's single flickering candle. And that was why, after hearing the rumours and realising that a full moon was but in two days time, she set out on the eve of that Saturday night instead of revising for her exam on Monday morning. She had not yet even glanced at any of the relevant material.

Ah, well. She was smart. She'd be  _ fine. _

The Castle Renais ruins were a popular tourist spot, but few knew that it was only a replica built a short distance away from the site of the  _ true  _ kingdom. They had been unable to clear the rubble, caught within the thicket of ancient trees, and so instead had opted to save time and money by simply building it at the forest's entrance.

Either security was light, or L'Arachel was fortunate (it was the latter), for she had no problem tip-toeing around barriers and crawling through tiny holes. She must also have had a brilliant sense of direction (again, it was luck), for it only took her a short while to find the ruins.

They were, in all honesty, somewhat underwhelming. She was studying law, not history. She did not see the different materials and shades of the ruins around her, of cracked roof slats and tower edges and pavement.

All she saw was rubble.

L'Arachel stepped forward, careful to avoid nettles and other nasty plants that had long since grown over the scattered bricks. Owls tooted from the branches of nearby trees. The forest rustled with nocturnal life.

A short distance ahead of her, there seemed to be a spot that was brighter than all else around it. She went towards it, fingers running over the bracelet on her left wrist. She’d made certain to pick the finest one she had, but given that she was a student, her ‘finest one’ had been a bracelet made out of silver-plated metal. Still, it was a gift from her uncle, and she treasured it dearly, and  _ surely,  _ that attachment meant far more than any price tag.

Hopefully this moon spirit wouldn’t be materialistic.

...If she even existed.

L’Arachel shivered under the moonlight’s chilling gaze. In the clouded sky, it was as though God themself was judging her.

“Well,” she muttered to herself. “Let’s get to it!”

She lifted her hand and stretched out her fingers, as far as they could go. One second went into the next. Her fingertips began to chill. Her arm ached from how stiffly she was holding it.

L’Arachel sighed, but just as she went to lower her arm—

There was light. A wonderful, glorious, blinding light, one that made her squint and hold an arm over her eyes to protect them.

It took what felt like an eternity for the light to fade. When it did, L’Arachel groaned and uncovered her eyes.

And gasped.

“Oh,  _ my,”  _ L'Arachel breathed at the woman standing in front of her.

She was beautiful. It was such an inadequate description of her, and yet, L'Arachel doubted that poets could have weaved together enough words to capture her fully. A slight scowl rested on her face, but it seemed to be more natural than true annoyance. She was slim, and tall, with skin almost as pale as the moonlit clouds above them.

Her outfit was… surprisingly ordinary. A ruffled skirt underneath a red blouse, the collar of which was covered by long, lush blue hair. It was a colour similar to the sky in early spring. She didn’t look like a princess. She looked like a lost cosplayer.

Perhaps L’Arachel’s first thought should have been something more along the lines of  _ “oh my God it actually worked there’s an actual breathing person standing in front of me”,  _ but L’Arachel was a hopeless romantic, and the woman standing in front of her was the dictionary definition of perfection.

“Who are you?” the woman asked. “I haven't been awakened for…” She frowned, glancing up at the cloudy sky. Only the moon peeked through them, an unblinking eye. Not a single star shone. “...What year is this?”

“2022?”

_ “Goodness.”  _ She flexed her fingers, stretching them out wide in front of her. “...Not as long as I'd expected.”

“O-oh, well. That's good, isn't it?”

“Mhmm.” She pushed out her lips, sea-like eyes still staring up. “The air is not as clean. The sky, too, has no stars. Seeing this much change in only a hundred odd years is…”

“Ah, well, climate change. We’ve made a lot of progress in the last few years, though! So the skies should be cleaner before we know it.”

The woman hummed.

“Do you have a name?” L’Arachel asked. “Thinking of you as just ‘a really  _ really  _ pretty woman’ is a bit of a mouthful.”

She raised her eyebrows, smiling just a fraction. “Oh? You think I’m pretty?”

“A-ah! I mean!” L’Arachel swerved her head away, cheeks and ears both ablaze. She crossed her arms with a little pout. “Not as beautiful as myself, of course!”

A giggle tinkled through the cold night. “I only tease,” came her voice, the warmest it had been all night. “My name is Eirika.” She had a cape, and L’Arachel only noticed it now as the woman grasped it in her hand and ducked into a flawless bow, head dipping low. “And I am to remain in this life for as long as you draw breath.”

“For as long as—” L’Arachel startled. “You’re  _ mortal?” _

“Hmm?” Eirika drew back up to her full height - she was significantly taller than L’Arachel, arms and bare legs lanky yet tight with muscle. She rested a hand under her chin, her other palm gripping the bottom of her elbow. “I… would imagine so. I wouldn’t be certain. Everyone who has awakened me prior to now has always died a few weeks later.”

“I’m - I’m sorry?” L’Arachel squeaked. “I fear I didn’t quite catch that. Everyone before me, who has awakened you,  _ dies?” _

“Don’t all people die?”

“I - I  _ guess.” _

A beat of silence.

“A  _ few weeks,  _ though?”

“The last person died only two weeks after.” Eirika clenched her fist. “It was - lonesome.”

“Also a bit  _ deadly,  _ from the sounds of it.”

L’Arachel did not know, however, that she had been blessed with luck so high it was virtually unheard of. It was as if she had sucked from the breast of Tyche herself, taking all of her fortune and none of her mischance.

Well. She couldn’t remember her parents. Perhaps her mother  _ had  _ been a goddess.

Vehicles would stop before colliding into her, at speeds no human could make a machine react in. If the skies outside howled with fierce winds, lashing down rain so heavy it bounced off the pavement, the clouds would clear as soon as L’Arachel stepped outside. Supermarkets always had her favourite brands in the ‘reduced’ section. Exams that she should have rightfully failed, she would pass with flying colours, without having lifted a pen or page.

Oh, she was smart, too. That most certainly was not to be ignored. She had an easiness to read people and to fold herself into the lives of others that no amount of fortune could make possible.

She just also happened to have, quite frankly, a bullshit amount of luck.

And so, because of this, she would not, like everyone else that had awoken Eirika, die a few weeks later due to some superstitious curse no one living actually knew of. She would not be trampled to death by a horse appearing from nowhere, or from her perfectly healthy body suddenly giving up on life, or, indeed, from being stung to death by a bunch of  _ very  _ angry wasps.

L’Arachel would live a long life, and she would live a happy one.

Of course, she didn’t know this, and it would be so dreadfully boring if she did.

“Ah, well!” L’Arachel clapped her hands together. “A problem for future me to worry about!”

She held out her hand. “Dear Eirika, let us return to my home. We can…” She trailed off, frowning. “I’m not quite sure  _ how  _ we can introduce a person from the moon to society, but it shall be done! My roommate is terribly smart - even more so than myself, perhaps. Together, we will be unstoppable!”

“I…” Eirika’s fingers chilled L’Arachel’s skin. Her digits were slim and long, the gaps in-between rough with callouses. She felt so very  _ real,  _ not at all a spirit or ghost. Were it not for the bracelet that still tingled on L’Arachel’s wrist, it would have been as if Eirika was just like anyone else. “Thank you. Um…”

“Oh, I didn’t introduce myself!” Caught in a moment of whim, L’Arachel brought Eirika’s hand up to her lips and graced it with a gentle kiss. “My name, dear Eirika, is L’Arachel. I have many titles - beautiful princess of peerless beauty, pleasurable company—” Eirika went a little red at this, for reasons apparent to anyone who wasn’t L’Arachel— “...but you can just call me L’Arachel. I must ask - do you  _ have  _ to stay near me? Since I was the one who awakened you.”

“No, you do not.” Eirika’s hand dropped from her own, and somehow, L’Arachel ached for that cold. “I can lead out my life separately from you, if you so wish it.”

“It’s up to what  _ you  _ want, Eirika,” L’Arachel said, and the surprise that blossomed across Eirika’s face shouldn’t have ached as much as it did. “For now, we shall get you integrated into the twenty-first century. From there, you can lead your life as you wish.”

“I…”

L’Arachel grasped her hand once more. “Shall we return to my place? I fear I have an exam in two days time I have not yet begun revision for.” As if she was going to spare a moment looking at boring notes, when someone like  _ Eirika  _ had just come into her world. “And it is rather late. The buses will stop running soon.”

“Exams?” Eirika frowned. “...Buses?”

“Oh, dear. We have  _ much  _ to teach you about.”

L’Arachel knew, though, that she would be more than happy to do so.

And, judging from the shy yet sincere smile Eirika gave her as they began to walk, she would be more than happy to learn.


End file.
